Title: Computational fluid dynamic analysis and additive manufacturing of customised bone scaffolds

Authors: S. Rashia Begum; G. Arumaikkannu

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, Anna University, Chennai-25, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Manufacturing Engineering, College of Engineering, Anna University, Chennai-25, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: The effectiveness of fabricated bone scaffolds to mimic exact bone tissue can be evaluated based on the mechanical strength and fluid dynamic behaviour. The fluid dynamic characteristic of a porous scaffold plays a vital role in predicting cell viability and tissue regeneration. The wall shear stress (WSS) of fluid in a porous scaffold is an important parameter which decides the extent of cell proliferation. This paper presents, CT scan data of a patient in DICOM format is exported into MIMICS software to convert the 2D images into 3D IGES data. The customised bone scaffolds with pore size of 0.6, 0.7 and 0.8 mm and inter pore distance from 0.6 mm to 1 mm were created and porosities of 15 customised bone scaffolds were determined. The above customised bone scaffolds were analysed in computational fluid dynamics (CFDs) software. The estimated WSS at fluid velocities from 0.2 mm/s to 1 mm/s were found to be in the range of 5.43 × 10−4 Pa to 47.8 × 10−4 Pa. The 15 scaffolds were then fabricated in additive manufacturing (AM) technique.

Keywords: additive manufacturing; bone scaffolds; pore size; porosity; wall shear stress; WSS; computational fluid dynamics; CFD; customised scaffolds; bone tissue; cell proliferation; fluid velocity; tissue engineering; scaffold fabrication; computerised tomography; CT scans; tibia; medical images; SLS; selective laser sintering.

DOI: 10.1504/PCFD.2015.069590

Progress in Computational Fluid Dynamics, An International Journal, 2015 Vol.15 No.3, pp.197 - 201

Published online: 27 May 2015 *

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